Fate worse than death
by ladyvader169
Summary: What if Gambol's thugs ever caught the Joker and brought him to their boss. What is Gambol had the upper hand? If Joker was the victim? What would happen to him?
1. Chapter 1

The streets of Gotham were silent as night came swiftly and the Batman would be gliding soon. Nothing could be seen except for single shadows creeping around the alleyways of the city.

"You see him anywhere?" One mob thug, C.J, asked as he reloaded his gun, ready to attack.

"Nope." A second responded, straining to keep alert as few cars passed in the distance.

"Well do ya think we'll see him C.J?" A third thug enquired as he gazed up into the night sky, seeing the bat symbol lighting up the blackness.

"If he's out then the clown will....Wait! look!.."

Immediately all the others turned around in alarm, their weapons trained on the darkness. "What is is!"

C.J punched him across his face "shhh, be quiet! Ya want that million."

"Yeah." He responded, rubbing his swollen lip.

"Then follow _me_." C.J growled through his stained teeth as he stealthy made his way towards the target, followed silently by the others.

They were neither seen nor heard as they continued to make their way to their victim. They were almost there but hastily ducked down when the unaware man looked up and scanned around him.

"He see us?" the slightest of whispers escaped a man's mouth.

"No" C.J responded, "he's settling down again; Come on"

He continued to creep in front of the others until they were finally in reach of their man. Using no words they waited for C.J's signal, as soon as they knew that time was right they struck. The unaware man did not see anything coming but still fought none the less. His foot collided into the ribs of one of C.J's thugs and his fist, into one of their faces.

"Do it!" The leader yelled as he almost struggled to restrain the agitated man.

One of the thugs, panicked but dim witted looked blankly at him before he heard C.J yell "the bag you idiot! The bag!"

"The teeth! The teeth!" Another screamed as the green haired man's yellow teeth almost sunk into C.J hand.

"For the love of Jesus H Christ! Knock 'im out!" This time his words were heard as a black bag was hastily fastened around the man's head.

"Hold him down! Give me that gun! Now!" He was thrown the gun and immediately knocked his hostage unconscious, beating the end of the weapon into the man's head.

"Got 'em." C.J breathed as he could finally loosen the grip on the now unconscious man's neck. "We're rich!" One of the thugs squealed as they prepared to carry the unconscious man, "Yeah, but first we gotta get 'em to Gambol."

"Well then let's get the hell outta here; this fuck will be awake in a couple of hours." One pointed out as they heaved his body across their right shoulder as they walked in single file down the almost flooded alleyways and into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

As they continued on their way, they felt him come round as he began to move.

"Yo C.J, he's comin' round."

C.J sniggered "'bout time, this guy's gettin' heavy."

"Wadda ya thin' Gambol will do to 'im?" A Voice came but all C.J did was shake his head and wave his hand as if in protest. "Don't. Even. Go. There."

As soon as they heard those words they all burst into a hysterical fir of laughter.

-"Whoa man, I hope he doesn't hand 'im over to...what that guy's name?" One of the taller men, Mart, clicked his fingers, trying to remember.

"Is he bad?" C.J questioned

-"one of the worst, trust me." He responded, shifting the weight.

C.J looked puzzled "What's he look like."

"Another whack job, wears a tux, looks old fashioned and a big hat."

Immediately they all stopped dead "**the mad hatter**!!"

-"Oh God!!"

-"No way! I forgot about that dude. Boss ran into him after a bank robbery...."

"And you all know what he likes to do..."

They knew and at that moment they could feel chills running down their spine. C.J was the only one to laugh it off. "Well boys, it looks like we found him a new little _Alice_. They all burst into another fit of laughter.

By the time they reached their 'club' and checked in past the security they immediately dumped the unconscious.

"BOSS!!" Mart yelled as he went to find Gambol whilst the others remained with the body.

"What!? Who's callin' me!?" Came the response of a dark skinned man as he made his way down the stairs, chewing on a cigar.

"Got a little somethin' for ya."

-"Wha'?"

"The Joker, boss!" One thug clapped as he pulled the bag off the beaten man's face. His makeup smudged, Half of it off and his face cut and bruised.

"Dead?"

-"Alive."

Gambol's face produced a delighted smile "Even better."

He walked over to the body and inspected him. He looked like hell "Wad you boys do? Hammer 'im?"

They didn't answer, the answer was obvious. Instead the stood as their boss began to circle the clown prince, who still did not stir.

"What are ya going to do to 'im?" C.J asked, coming closer.

"Like I said at one stage, he needs to be taught some manners and I tell ya he's gonna be on his knees beggin' !" He gave the Joker a violet kick to the stomach and then a hard punch to his face.

"How does that feel?!" Another hard blow came "Huh?"

The clown prince still did not wake up, but blood began to leak out of his mouth and black eyes would soon appear.

"You gonna kill 'im?" Mart asked, taking his own cigar to light it.

"No!" Gambol's voice boomed instantly "not yet anyway but believe me by the time I'm threw he's gonna know regret, he's gonna know pain, he's gonna know suffering and he's gonna know _humiliation_.

That last word made them all immediately shudder.

"Get _him _out of my sight!" They did not make a move, not one.

Gambol paused for a moment before banging his fist into the snooker table "I SAID GET HIM OUT OF MY SIGHT!!"

Every single one of them jumped and all made a move to get the body.

"W-where B-..." Mart asked, his voice now shaking.

"Anywhere! The cellar, the basement! You pick, for Christ sakes!" He cleared his throat before swallowing a mouthful of whisky.

Without wishing to anger him more, C.J and Mart picked up his body and were about to scurry out of the room before Mart pulled a long knife out of the Joker's coat pocket "Woah!"

"Fancy knife." C.J commented as he watched the blade gleam against the light.

"What else I wonder?" Mart quipped as he dug his hand into the Joker's pocket only to pull out two more razor sharp knives.

"He ain't half loaded." C.J chuckled as more gleams caught his eyes.

Gambol took another gulp of alcohol before making his way over to the Joker. The knives were passed onto Gambol who inspected the knives for himself "humm, 22 inch, stainless steel, Italian. Guy's got taste. What else has he got?" Gambol asked, suddenly becoming interested.

"He's loaded boss." Mart expressed as he gave him more newly found blades "could have more."

-"which is exactly the reason I am ordering for him to be locked away. I will leave that to you."

"Just lock him up?" C.J asked as they both he and Mart prepared to lift his heavy body. Gambol nodded.

"Then wha'? We search him mo..."

-"Dump him. Search him. _Strip him_."


	3. Chapter 3

After Gambol had spoken they sniggered amongst themselves then carried him off down into the club's basement.

Down in the basement was damp- smelling, cold and dripping with water from broken pipes.

"Jeez, it's bloody freezin' down there." Mart whined.

C.J shoved him roughly "I don't care. Dump him, you heard the boss!"

They dumped him roughly on the floor before hastily removing his coat, his blazer and so on until there was nothing left. C.J inspected his purple suit "He's got class." He attempted to try it on for himself then the gold chain caught his eye. "oooo, nice" He snatched it and stuffed it into his pocket.

"What do ya really think the boss will do with him?"

C.J shrugged and snorted "I dunno, but the boss is pretty angry with this dude, so…?"

As soon as the both of them had removed all of his clothes completely they chuckled again. They now saw before them an extremely thin man who had been robbed of everything, his weapons, his clothes, his dignity.

"We should really get these to the boss" Mart whispered as he caught a glimpse of C.J pocketing another one of the Joker's weapons.

"But look at these…."

"C.J. Come on, were gonna get a million bucks, forget the fucking knives!"

He took one last glimpse at the knives before putting them on top of the bundle of Joker's clothes. Taking one last glimpse at the bare man, Mart spat at him before running off with the others, back to a waiting Gambol.

*****

Slowly as his vision returned to him he noticed that he was in a dark room. It was cold and it smelled. He smelled.

He didn't know what to make of things. Where was he? Why was he so cold? He slowly reached his hand round to clutch the corner of his coat to keep warm he was shocked. Where was his coat? He looked down at his body as his eyes widened, where were his trousers?! His socks?! His shoes?! Nothing remained, suddenly he felt a terrible shiver run down his spins as he looked to an old creaked, wooden door and saw eyes. Eyes were staring at him, at his shame. How dare they!

"T-take…a…picture..it lasts…l-long-ger." He tried to hide his shame and growing embarrassment but soon found that his voice was hoarse and broken. He was the Joker, who dared do this?! They would pay!

As he continued to listen to the muffled voices he closed his eyes and tried to block out the noises. His head was pounding and he couldn't stop shivering.

Clutching his head tightly he tried his best to curl up in a ball to keep warm as best he could but before he could move two heavily built men came into the room, fully loaded and angry faced.

"Boss wants to see ya!" One growled as he grabbed the Joker firmly by the nape of the neck then dragged him to his feet. He tried his best to fight back but his body was stiff and his limbs hurt but he still tried his best.

The armed thug was almost taken down by the captive man but as soon as he nearly had his captor on the ground he was immediately overwhelmed by the second man. He was violently beaten, to the face and to the chest before being roughly kicked out of the room at gunpoint. Getting to his feet, the challenged man limped out of the room and back upstairs with the Joker and his partner.

They did not go in with their prisoner. Instead they merely shoved him inside and left. The Joker, now coughing and trying to catch his breath looked around the room, despite his physical appearance, trying to memorise his surroundings.

The entire room was dark and it was silent until he heard a suddenly familiar voice "Long time, no see clown!" His head immediately shot up and his eyes again widened. He knew that voice! It was at a mob meeting he heard the deep man's voice.

"T-that…voice." His voice had still not healed and he was not given another chance.

"So we've remembered have we?" The voice chuckled in a sadistic tone before the room's light came on immediately exposing the Joker.

As horrified as someone would have been to see such a sight, Gambol remained calm in his leather arm chair and beside him was another man. He appeared short, his fine silk suit and polished shoes shining with his white hair and along with that the steel frames of his long glasses reflected the Joker's reflection.

He stared at the other man and Gambol rubbed his chin as in thinking. "you look different clown. New _suit_? Get it for your _birthday_?"

The Joker glared at him. He would kill Gambol. If it was the last thing he did, he would kill him!

Deciding to change the subject, escape from the clown's death stare his hand gestured to the man.

"Uh, Clown, I don't believe you have met this fine man, Mr. Hardenbrook."

He also received the Joker's stare but still remained unmoved.

"He is the head of the mob businesses in the territories of Gotham." Still the Joker remained still and continued to glare.

"He is a very reliable man, such as myself but it comes at a price as you would understand. Ya see, all we want is control, so we organized an exchange. A trade if you will, we get authority over the territories of Gotham and in return he gets an expensive and hopefully worthwhile piece of property…."

The look now on Gambol's face made the Joker suddenly gulp and the face on the other's was no different.

He heard Gambol clear his throat and his attention came fully and instantly.

"….A slave."

The Joker shook his head in disbelief. He didn't just hear that. Did he? He couldn't have!

"I cane just see the joy on your face." Gambol laughed with glee upon seeing the Joker's face. It could only be described a fearful. He then, again turned to his other guest. "Now that we have everything in order, we can…."

-"Only if your end of the deal is worth it!" Hardenbrook interjected as she slowly arose to inspect the man.

Gambol at the same time got up out of his seat and went to join Hardenbrook as she slowly circled the Joker, taking notes "humm, now let's see…very slim build, deep trench-like scars to his face, covered in bruises, body riddled with gashes…"

He then moved to his scalp and then to his mouth "quite a bad case of thriving head lice…..extremely bad oral hygiene."

He inspected the Joker's mouth, pulling his lips apart and almost made the Joker yelp and wriggle to get away until he finally let go.

"He is in extremely bad condition for an exchange bargain but on the other hand he would still be good for his working and labour years."

He sniffed in a handkerchief as he looked away from Joker who was still scratching at his head.

He looked Gambol in the eye "I'll take him."


	4. Chapter 4

The shook hands on the deal before looking at a small silver watch, dangling from his pocket. "Now, as you know, my schedule is short so have him ready to go, my car will be waiting out the front." He tipped his hat, then left just after handing Gambol his money for the exchange.

Gambol watched him go before taking the Joker firmly by his shoulders and leading him out of the room.

He escorted him down the hallway and out into the front where indeed a black car was waiting and attached to the end was a small trailer.

"Put him in." Hardenbrook ordered Gambol, emerging from the night mist.

Gambol pushed the Joker roughly as he brought him towards the car door but Hardenbrook's voice stopped him dead before he could touch the handle "ah, ah, ah. No! I do not want my fine seats ruined, put him in the trailer; it's what I brought the bloody thing for…..well? What are you waiting for!?"

Gambol did as he was told, saying nothing. The Joker stumbled as he was kicked into the back of the trailer before being bound at the ankle with a strip of rope covered in grim and oil. He pulled roughly at the rope as he felt it dig harshly into his ankle, his blood circulation beginning to stop.

He gritted his teeth and growled like a wild animal as the rope still refused to loosen "shut up!" Gambol hand slapped him across the back of the head, making him fall. He growled again.

"Leave him alone! I don't want him damaged!" The elder man yelled as the dark skinned man prepared to strike again.

The mobster recoiled his clutched fist and remained silent.

After taking one final run through of their arrangements, Hardenbrook once again shook hands with the other before climbing into his car. "Drive." He ordered his chauffer looking back at his new servant who was shivering violently, clutching only a thin sheet that was placed over his shoulders and back, desperately tying to keep warm

"Have a nice trip." Gambol mocked as well sniggered as the car finally drove off, the Joker tied up in the back.

Sniffing the scent of his money Gambol watched in joy as the car sped out of sight and into the mist.

The car continued to speed along the road, stopping for nothing and for no one. It went through red lights and you could hear the shouting and scteaming of people who dodged the out of control car.

Hardenbrook chuckled as he saw children, woman and children flee for their lives and he was almost tempted to order his driver to chase them, grunting from the Joker could even be heard from the back as he was shoved and hit around the trailer.

Clutching his arm as blood poured from a deep gash the Joker gritted his teeth again before letting out a sharp hiss of pain as the car made another swerve. He thought it would never end until the car finally came in for a stop.

He looked around and saw that they had left Gotham city and all that was around him was hills. He could barely see in the dark and could just make out a grand house sitting in between the hills and at the back of the huge building was a forest.

As he continued to look around, Hardenbrook got out of the car and strode around to the trailer "come on." He hastily untied the rope off his ankle before gripping him sharply and completely pulling him off the trailer. He landed on the ground roughly as he tightly clutched his stomach when he fell. He felt as though he could barely move.

"Get up!" Another sharp blow came to his already bruised side. He still did not move "When I tell you to get up. YOU GET UP!"

Wishing to avoid more injuries he tried his best to crawl back onto his feet again. When he did, his new 'master' took him by the wrists and dragged him further towards the house.

They got through the grand gates and to the door and Hardenbrook knocked the door. A moment later it was answered by a young woman, his wife.

"June," He smiled and greeted in a kiss. She smiled slightly before her eyes were drawn to the poor excuse for a man which he had. She continued to stare before glaring at her husband "James, we have discussed this before…" Her voice was low.

He shook off her sad look "He was a bargain June, a bargain." He grasped the man by his shoulders, showing the quality "He'll be a good thing to have around, He can sleep out in the old shed out the back, he'll pull his weight for us and we can feed him a couple of times a week…"

She did not reply instead she took one last gaze at the Joker before replying "supper's on James…I'll bring some out later for…"

"No!"

She creased her brow "I'm sorry?"

He looked her straight in the eye "I said no. He has to earn his keep now. He works hard, he gets food, he takes it easy, well then, and he goes without."

"As you wish." She bowed her head but just before she could leave he stopped her "Say, Um, June…"

She turned.

"Why don't you bring our daughters out to see him?" She looked at him in complete disgust but she was not prepared to argue. She nodded and left. Within a few moments later she returned with two girls. One had black hair and a pale white face, she looked gentle and also delicate. Her soft brown eyes almost watered once she beheld the sight and she almost felt the instant need to help him but she knew that it was not her place.

The other girl had thick blonde hair, her face was slightly fatter and as soon as she saw him she turned her nose up immediately "Uh, God, what is that?!" She squealed.

"It's a man, Leahann." The black-haired girl, Shan, replied smiling at the stranger.

"Daddy's bought a new slave for us and let me tell you he was well worth the money." He made the Joker turn around, so they could see a full inspection of him. He brought the Joker closer to them but Leahann backed away "Get him away from me! He's, augh, he's NAKED!!"

"SHUT UP LEAHANN!" Shan yelled in her sister's face. Leahann was taken back by her sister's outburst and looked to her mother "M-Mommy, she…she yelled at me!" She squealed again. June looked at Shan and shook her head.

"Mommy!!" Another yell came

"Be quiet Leahann, now go in and eat!" Her mother scowled.

Leahann stamped her foot and pouted but as soon as she was about to leave she saw Shan lay a hand gently on the man's shoulder "I so can't believe your touching him!"

"Leahann…" Her mother warned again.

"What? Don't you not care she's touching a possible, naked, diseased ridden reject!" She marched back up to the door, pushed past her mother and sister until she was in the Joker's face. She laid a hand on his shoulder and shoved him. He did nothing. She hit him again and he still did not move.

"He won't touch you darling." Hardenbrook cooed as he took a firm grip of the Joker's neck. He lowered his head and breathed in. There was only so much he could take.

"I know he won't touch me daddy, I mean look at him, he's a useless…" She pushed him harder "….dirty…" He stumbled back with her fist "….REJECT!!"

At that moment his head shot up and he lundged out at her. Her fist was caught in his mouth, his yellow teeth sank into her hand.

"Ahhhhh, nooooo, daddy!! Get him off!!" She bellowed as blood began to flow down her hand. Hardenbrook immidaitly grapped the Joker by the hair and wrenched him off his wailing daughter and to the ground. He was yelling and snarling as his face was pressed into the ground. Hardenbrook drove a fist into the side of the Joker's face and yelled "June! Get me the switch!" She shook her head "James, no…" He slammed another fist into the other man's face "Do it!!" She then sniffed back a tear as she retreated into the house, bringing Leahann with her. "Come Leahann, let's get you bandaged up…"

"I want to see him punished! I want to…." Leahann whined "He's wild!!! I want daddy to kill him!!" Hot tears were pouring down her face.

"Just go in there and wait for me to come back…" She whimpered as she left the kitchen, switch in hand.

She strode back down the hallway and then handed Hardenbrook the switch. Hardenbrook snatched it off her the pushed her away.

"Come Shan." She took her daughter by the arm and tried to pull her away. Her daughter refused. "No!! Dad can't!! It wasn't his fault!..." She fought againstb her mother even more.

"Get her out of here!" Hardenbrook yelled against the squirming Joker, his grip tightening on the switch. By the time she got Shan out of there, she hugged into her mother as soon as she heard the switch fall and the Joker wail in pain. She couldn't understand. What had he done wrong? She continued to hug into her mother even more as she heard the Joker whimper as it fell again. More burning tears fell as she retreated further into the house.


End file.
